Last month we reported on a webinar held on December 15 on the topic of anti-Semitism featuring a curious cast of charters given the topic. The participants included Rashida Tlaib, Peter Beinart, and Marc Lamont Hill, all fierce critics of Israel. Two of them have been accused of being anti-Semites themselves while Beinart is from a Jewish background. The event was sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP- an anti-Israel group) and several other, anti-Israel, leftist groups. Here is more on the event from the blog, Fighting the New Anti-Semitism.
The 4th participant was someone I was not familiar with, Barbara Dansby, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her fields are African-American Studies and Gender Studies. I take more interest now because she is slated to speak on January 13 at a similar event entitled:
A Crucible Moment for Race in America: The Crisis of Racial Capitalism and the Challenge of the Movement for Black Lives
The event is sponsored by several groups associated with UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine (where I taught part-time 1998-2016). The principal sponsoring offices at these two universities are the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at UCSB and the Office of Inclusion and Excellence at UCI.
So who is Barbara Dansby? To give you a flavor, here is an op-ed on feminism appearing in The Guardian in 2017 and co-signed by several female activists including Dansby. I am not familiar with all of them, but I am familiar with Angela Davis and Rasmea Odeh.
In addition, The Canary Mission is a blog devoted to identifying people on college campuses whom they consider to be anti-Semitic. Here is what they have to say about Barbara Dansby.
In spite of my concession in the first paragraph that I was unfamiliar with Dansby, I will go out on a limb here and say that, based on all the above links, she is a leftie and an opponent of Israel. That's OK though I disagree with the leftist philosophy and I support Israel.
Like Dansby, I am also against violence and suppression against women. No problem there.
This is a free country, and Dr Dansby is entitled to her views. I would agree that apartheid in South Africa was wrong and that racism against Black Americans is also wrong. I am sure there are many areas where I completely disagree with her views. I would particularly take issue with her association with and support of convicted former terrorist, Rasmea Odeh, who is, fortunately, now residing in some other country since she was deported from the US. But none of that is the point.
Here is the point I want to make: I am not demanding that this event be canceled. Dansby and the two universities have the First Amendment right to put her on and let her spout her views to the faculty and students. Nor would I ever attempt to disrupt her event as her colleagues at JVP would do and have done. Yet, I would challenge these two diversity offices at UCSB and UCI to occasionally sponsor a speaker with a different point of view. Perhaps someone who supports Israel. Perhaps someone who thinks America is still a great country in spite of its dark chapters and its present-day flaws. Perhaps someone who supports Capitalism. How about an occasional conservative? How about a Republican or (gasp) a Trump supporter?
Now, maybe I'm all wet. It could be that either office at UCSB or UCI could respond and say, "Yes, we have brought in such speakers and here they are and the dates they spoke." I would welcome such a response. However, I have issued such a challenge in the past with UCI, and it went nowhere. Maybe things have changed since then.
So I am sending this post to the two respective offices and repeating my challenge. I will be happy to post whatever response I get even if it proves me wrong.
Oh, and.....speakers invited by conservative student groups or pro-Israel student groups don't count.
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